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Sending Jobs Overseas "Good Thing" Says Bush AdministrationPresident promises to rid more Americans of their jobs if re-elected to second term
One of President Bush's top economic advisers called outsourcing -- when companies fire Americans and send their jobs overseas -- "a good thing." "Losing your job can be a positive thing," explained Bush aide Lawrence McIlhane, "in that it affords people more time to spend at home with their children and to think of ways to spend the enormous tax savings they've gotten from President Bush." This may come as a surprise to the 2.2 million workers who have lost their jobs during the first three years of the Bush presidency. "I guess I never thought of it that way before," said Al Gillespie, an unemployed tech worker from Georgia. "Up to now, I just figured that when a job left our country for China it was a bad thing. But, that's why I'm unemployed and George Bush is President."
Democrats seized on the report as further proof that the President's economic policies are out of touch with ordinary Americans. Democratic presidential frontrunner John Kerry (D-Ma.) wondered how many of those unemployed Americans would still have work if Bush had spent more time protecting jobs instead of figuring ways to grant billions of dollars of tax breaks to the wealthy. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean put it more bluntly. "The best way for unemployed America to show Mr. Bush how they feel about the outsourcing of American jobs to cheap overseas markets," said Dean, "is to invite him to join the ranks of the unemployed in November." The White House continues to support the loss of jobs. "The President strongly feels that a 2.2 million job loss is a good thing," said White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. "And if re-elected, he promises to do all he can to send another two or three million jobs overseas." Democrats had no immediate response to the White House's statement. |
This week, it was revealed that President Bush supports sending American jobs overseas. The White House released a report that said, "When a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes more sense to import it than to make it or provide it domestically."
Gillespie lost his job at TechWerk Suppliers, Inc., when his $60,000 a year job was outsourced to a Mexican child worker making the equivalent of 8 cents per hour. Gillespie added that, even though he was unemployed, he'd vote for Bush in November because he, like the President, is a Christian and thinks a liberal president would legalize gay marriage.